My Equestrian History

Having lived in London until the age of 4, moving to the country gave me the opportunity to start riding. Both sides of my family are from horsey backgrounds, so were keen to get me going. Dad still hunted every Saturday until last year... (now on the lookout for a new hunter!)

My very first pony was a typical crafty, but talentless little section A who would regularly take me to the end of the bridleway and leave me there, both of us returning alone, him with a massive smile and me with a mud covered scowl. He certainly tested my determination to the limit.

VelvetLuckily, my parents were then offered a sweet little old Shetland called Velvet, who really got me going and made me appreciate that not all ponies were so horrible!

Velvet was the reason we ended up setting up a miniature pony stud, www.goldenoakstud.com. After realising that section A’s are often too much for a very first pony, mum used me and my brothers to 'break-in' all the miniature youngstock. We had great fun doing it and we also all took turns to watch the foaling cameras and help foal about 25 mares during the school holidays.

Dreamy

Over the next 3 years, my parents wanted me to prove my dedication before buying me anything special so we had various ponies on loan before taking a chance by buying ‘Dreamy’. She was a beautiful palomino mare with a gorgeous temperament, but had done very little, and I needed all my determination to stay on her bucks and get her going jumping at local shows.

I also took her to her and my first meet and although hunting was a bit scary, particularly with a combined age of 12, me 8 and her 4, it taught us both a few lessons.Dreamy eventually went to my cousin Zoe Davison who has excelled on her at pony club Area dressage, eventing and show jumping.

Fifi

After ‘surviving’ bringing on a young pony, we were very lucky to find a really brilliant little show jumping mare called Fifi. She was incredibly talented but wayward and very bold and strong for a 9 year old girl. It was a big decision as she would either make or break what little confidence I had built up. Luckily I really clicked with her and we won so many trophies and prizes, as well as doing lots of hunting and pony club before very sadly outgrowing her. She was also the first pony I was lucky enough to keep at school with me when I moved to Stonar, and it was very hard to let her go even though it was a lovely home who still have her.

Cherry

14.2h was a big next step up but we wanted something that ideally would last. ‘Cherry’ was my first real schoolmistress, a sweet mare who introduced me to hunter trials, pony racing and was great at pony club camp. She was a brilliant show jumper for the level I was at, and absolutely swept the board at West Wilts unaffiliated evening show jumping every time out!

I also did my first event on her, the ISODE at Stonar. But I did struggle to get on with her and eventually sold her to a friend at school. Without having had the experiences on Cherry though I could never have taken on Sam.

SamWell, what can I say? The most amazing pony I have ever had. As I was horseless once Cherry was gone, I ended up being put on Sam in a lesson at school, and I was told he was for sale. He was a TB X Welsh 14.2h related to Derby winner Sir Ivor which must go some way to explaining his speed! He had proved tricky to sell by his previous owner as despite an incredible natural jump, he was just unbelievably strong and well bitted up. He fly leaped around the XC warm up and stopped at most of the fences, but as I had no horse, I started ‘stable helping’ him. Well, no one else wanted to ride him!

My parents came to see him and although Dad loved him, he terrified mum, who was convinced he was way too much for me as he soared out of control into the distance. We agreed if I could get him round an event at the weekend with no stops, we would buy him. Needless to say he bolted in the dressage, doing the whole test in canter, halting on the judge’s car and scoring 55. I knew that was it and mum would say no. But he jumped double clear and dad told me he’d already bought him!

Over the next 4 ½ years, he taught me the ups and (mainly) downs of the sport (see gallery).During my early years at Stonar I had a lot of help from Jill Storey with Sam and we had a fantastic individual win at Hickstead, a good handful of top 3 pony racing finishes and a top 10 finish at the Blue Chip Winter Showjumping Championships.

Hunting was an interesting experience with him regularly sailing past the Field Master but in other ways he was just outstanding. Being a natural show-off, he was the only one in the field one day to jump a massive 6’2 hedge out hunting and always knew he had to perform when it mattered, unless it was in the dressage arena. But he made me so determined to succeed and prove people wrong.

I knew he could do Pre-novice, although it sounds small now, it was massive at the time, but everyone else thought he couldn’t, and I think it’s fair to say I felt satisfied when he qualified for a PN regional final and performed immaculately to finish 1 penalty out of Badminton grassroots qualification for 2010. But god was he frustrating!

Although he was incredibly quirky, we developed an amazing relationship and managed to work out strong bits worked against him and got him down to a snaffle mouth in the end even out hunting.

Squirrel

By winter 2008 it was clear Sam was hopelessly outgrown. We searched for and tried the next step up but it was a long tricky road of unsuitable horses, with many long stories... One lucky day, our Equine Dentist was treating the mini’s and explained he knew of a big inexperienced chestnut with huge potential. We went to see him and knew as soon as we set eyes on Squirrel (White Walker)we had to have him.

We were aware it was another massive gamble as I was also inexperienced on such a big young horse, who, as Caroline pointed out was like jumping out of a mini on to a Ferrari. He was outstandingly schooled on the flat, but at the same time, very difficult and extremely sensitive. He had had little jumping experience and had only done one jumping competition. Introducing him to eventing has been a huge learning experience for us both, but he has just been fantastic and so bold cross country from the start.

In one year I took him from Intro to CCI* where we were never out of the top 10 and were part of the 2009 South West JRN team championships at Weston Park. It was both of our first 3 day event and he rose to the challenge brilliantly to finish 5th individually.

Following that we were selected for the British Junior Squad and enjoyed the winter training sessions with Gill Watson and Lizzel Winter. Unfortunately we didn’t have a great start to the 2010 eventing season as Squirrel developed a deep tooth root abscess and after months of antibiotics he needed an operation to remove it. After his operation, coming off the antibiotics revealed a serious foot abcsess which had been masked for a long time, so he was very lame. 2011 was plagued with similar bad luck, but after a winter with Harry Meade, we really hoped to have a successful 2012 season. Once again, our season was cut short through injury, and with a horrendous spring in terms of weather, 2012 was pretty rubbish too!

However, having no horse spurred me into looking for rides, and Amber Woodhouse Equestrian was created at Boomerang Stables! Please see my Blog to see how this is going!